In the decade from 2010 to 2020, open-world games have made great progress. Major game companies around the world have set their sights on this genre, and many industrial-level open-world titles were born during this time. Among them, Ubisoft has produced the most open-world games.
Assassin's Creed, The Division, Ghost Recon, Far Cry, ...... These open-world games have all generated high attention and sales for Ubisoft, and they continue to shine. However, not all IPs can be continued, and the well-known Ubisoft game whistleblower j0nathan recently revealed that all subsequent game development work on the "Watch Dogs" series has been stopped.
And the reason for this result is because the market performance and reputation of "Watch Dogs: Legion" are not satisfactory. Ubisoft's "no fixed protagonist" setting also gave this IP a heavy blow. Back in 2013, when the original Watch Dogs first announced its trailer at the E3 Game Show, it was considered by countless players to be a title that could compete with Grand Theft Auto 5.
Although the trailer of "Watch Dogs" is suspected of "fraud" in hindsight, and the official version of the game has shrunk severely, it is still an excellent open-world work despite the constipated driving feel and other problems. Compared to the GTA series and the Brothers of the Four Seas series, which focus on gangsters, the landscape of Watch Dogs is even higher.
If you're a fan of the American drama "Suspect Tracking", then the original "Watch Dogs" will definitely meet your expectations. In that era when smartphones were just beginning to be used on a large scale, would you also be worried that as long as there is a network and electricity, your privacy will be exposed?
At that time, Ubisoft was still very good at storytelling, and the protagonist of the original "Watch Dogs", Aiden Pierce, is still considered by countless people to be the most charismatic game character. He is the combination of Li Si and Zhai in "Suspect Tracking", who can go out in the field and understand technology. Wandering between black and white as the finalist, the story almost single-handedly confronts the whole of Chicago.
However, the later story began to deviate, and the protagonist in the second generation changed from an individual to a protagonist group. A group of young people engaged in hip-hop made the atmosphere no longer as heavy as the first story, and the continuation and transition of the main plot were also a little less smooth. But the new hacking skills, props, and 3D-printed weapons and firearms are also worth playing.
It wasn't until "Watch Dogs: Legion" further fragmented the already weak and lacking sense of substitution in the plot, allowing players to recruit characters randomly, which made the series completely unstoppable. After the novelty of "collecting Pokémon" ends, the protagonist's settings can be changed at any time, making the player NPC a complete tool.
Although the protagonist Aiden Pierce returns again in the DLC, it is not a true story after all. Since then, "Watch Dogs", a highly imaginative IP, has also collapsed ten years after the original release.
Veteran players were unhappy with the result, and felt that if Aiden Pearce had been brought back as the main character earlier, the game would have become a contender for the "best of the year". This may be an exaggeration, but think that if the protagonist of the series has always been the same, the "Watch Dogs" series may have a few more.
It's been a long time since Ubisoft has had a title of the kind that sparked a lot of discussion. "Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown", which has been the highest-rated in the past 10 years, also has no word-of-mouth and no sales. Its several major open-world IPs are a bit of a lack of succession, and it is hard to imagine how they will break the game in the future.
So in everyone's memory, what is the most impressive point about the "Watch Dogs" series?